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Cormier dominates Nelson

Damon Martin

Damon Martin is a veteran mixed martial arts journalist who has been covering the sport since 2004. His work has been published in CNN, Bleacher Report, MMAWeekly.com, Yahoo! Sports, UFC.com and SportsIllustrated.com. He also co-hosts The Great Debate Radio MMA podcast, and has appeared on ESPN Radio and SportsNet Radio. Follow him on Twitter.

Two-time Olympian Daniel Cormier is on his way to the light
heavyweight division, but before he arrives he made one last stop
at heavyweight where he soundly defeated Roy Nelson on Saturday
night.

A wrestler by nature, Cormier came out and immediately put the
pressure on Nelson to try and stop his takedowns. The Oklahoma
State alum was able to put Nelson down in the first round where he
looked to land some punches while making sure he kept the Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu black belt out of submission range.

Following that initial takedown, Nelson did a great job of
shrugging off Cormier's other attempts to get the fight to the
ground, but things didn't go much better for him on the feet.

Cormier's fast hands were too much for Nelson to counter and
time after time the American Kickboxing Academy fighter launched
punches in succession that tagged and rattled the Las Vegas based
competitor.

Another element added to Cormier's growing arsenal were head
kicks, which he threw at will against Nelson while constantly
targeting his right side. Nelson's power punch comes from his right
hand so it was smart strategy for Cormier to keep him blocking
kicks, which in turn stopped him from launching his sledgehammer
haymaker.

The fight slowed in the third round, but Cormier still
controlled the pace as Nelson slowed with each minute that passed.
When it was over, the judges all gave unanimous 30-27 scores to
Cormier, who keeps his perfect record in tact at 13-0 as he now
begins his life at 205 pounds with his next fight.

Nelson drops his second fight in a row with the loss to Cormier
now moving his career record to 19-9 overall and 6-5 inside the UFC
Octagon.

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